Separated By Birth
by Overlithe77
Summary: AU/What-if. In a world in which Sozin turned out to be the Avatar instead of Roku, Zuko and Azula live oddly different, and oddly parallel, lives. Part of the *Children of the Empire* series, but can be read on its own.


**Title: Separated By Birth**

**Author:** **overlithe**

**Fandom:** _Avatar: the Last Airbender_

**Summary:** AU/What-if. In a world in which Sozin turned out to be the Avatar instead of Roku, Zuko and Azula live oddly different, and oddly parallel, lives.

**Characters/Pairings:** Zuko & Ozai, Azula & Ursa, Sozin; gen

**Prompt: avatar_500** prompt 039. Captive; **fanfic100** prompt 028. Children

**Word Count:** 500

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and concepts created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and owned by Nickelodeon and various other corporations/people. I'm not making any money and do not intend any copyright or trademark infringement. AU!Ozai's parenting techniques are a mix of Big Daddy's in _Kick-Ass_ (the movie, though the whole Based on a Great Big Lie backstory is more akin to the comics' version) and Erik Heller's in the movie _Hanna_. The fic's title comes from the Vermillion Lies album of the same name.

**Author's Notes:** This is set in my _Children of the Empire_ universe (you can find a link to the series' tag in my LJ if you go to my profile page), a what-if/canon divergence AU in which Sozin turned out to be the Avatar instead of Roku. Fast-forward to the the time period when the canon is set, and the world is a unified, prosperous utopia led by the Council of Worldly Harmony with help and guidance from Avatar Sozin. However, trouble is brewing in paradise*: soon before Ursa realises she's pregnant with Azula, Ozai fakes his own death and goes underground with his infant son… whom he raises as an implacable weapon (complete with elaborate—and fake—backstory) in his plan to bring down the Avatar and his world.

If the premise intrigues you, you can read more about the series' set-up here: overlithe(dot)livejournal(dot)com/128447(dot)html. You can also check out _Role Model_ (available here at my ffnet account), another ficlet set in this universe, and you can read the main fic's prologue and first chapter here: overlithe(dot)livejournal(dot)com/165716(dot)html I will be working on the main fic for this year's NaNoWriMo, so the whole thing should be ready soon! (Also, all the above links are also in my ffnet profile page in an easier to use format.)

(*Paradise may not apply to all perspectives. Results may vary. Void where prohibited.)

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><p><strong>Separated By Birth<strong>

* * *

><p>Zuko is two when father first puts a flame in his hands. His fingers muffle it; father's face turns hard and still.<p>

Zuko waits.

The next thing is not a flame, but a sharp sliver of obsidian. A chubby fist tightens around a twine-covered handle, turns the blade without clumsiness.

Father smiles, and so Zuko is happy.

:=:

Mother is always seeing bad things.

Snapped bones at the bottom of a stone wall.

Blistered skin by a boiling pot.

Broken fingers in a gate.

'Don't get too close to the edge, you can fall on the tracks.' Azula obeys, unwilling; she's six, not stupid. She thinks of the father she's never met, dead in an airship crash before her birth. In her mind it's a paper lantern, burning.

They step into the train, her hand firmly clasped by Ursa's and, unseen and defiant, Azula dangles one foot above the gap.

:=:

The Si Wong desert is blinding white by day and cold blue by night. Zuko is nine now, old enough to show father he can survive alone for a week. He started without supplies, but he had fire, mastered in the rain and the ice. Now he has a flint knife and arrows.

He thinks of The Mission as he stalks a gazellion. Of father escaping the Avatar's clutches, finding mother dead, rescuing infant Zuko.

He imagines the Avatar's face as he stands above the gazellion, an arrow embedded in its heart.

Father comes back after almost four weeks.

Adapt or die.

:=:

Last year her flames were blinding white. Now she is twelve and they are a cold blue.

'That was extraordinary,' her great-grandfather says in his ageless voice as she finishes her demonstration. Her skin is already cooling, but her heart glows.

Her firebending only makes mother tell her to be careful; it never makes her uncle and grandfather say anything at all.

Sozin is supposed to be only her great-grandfather. The Avatar belongs to the world, not to a single family.

All she can think of is that, for a moment, the mind who keeps watch over everyone is focused entirely on her.

:=:

Without the mask, he is a fourteen-year-old boy.

With the mask, he is a ghost.

Without the mask, he can be hurt.

With the mask, he is free from pain and fear.

Without the mask, he can be defeated.

With the mask he is invincible. He is the thing that will haunt all the rot in the world. He is everlasting.

He blocks father's blow without difficulty. Always be ready.

'Time to go, Scarlet Shadow,' father says. Zuko knows he's pleased.

:=:

Azula takes ten minutes to decide she hates opera. Her gaze slides over mother, cousin, uncle, and grandfather, over the crowd glittering softly in the half-dark.

Great-grandfather is not there.

Masked figures leap onto the stage. She stops rolling her eyes, sits up.

Under the emerald and scarlet clay, their eyes see without being seen.

Her body thrums.

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><p>++The End++<p>

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><p><strong>NotesDisclaimer:** The scene with Ozai having Zuko fend for himself in the middle of nowhere, arrow to the heart of his prey and all, is from the movie _Hanna_ (only there Hanna had to hunt a reindeer in the Finnish Arctic Circle). The line "adapt or die" is from the same movie. The stuff about Zuko's Scarlet Shadow mask making him invincible/everlasting/etc is loosely paraphrased from the movie _Batman Begins_. The Scarlet Shadow costume itself is based on the initial concepts for Zuko's (canon) disguise, originally called the Red Spirit, which you can check out here: pics(dot)livejournal(dot)com/overlithe/pic/0011qfy8 (scanned from the art book). Again, the same link is available in my profile page.


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